This is one of six essays in the May 2018 report "Addressing Non-State Actors: Multiple Approaches" (see full report). Each essay is the independent work of its author. ​

Latin America continues to face internal and
transnational security threats that include drug cartels, transnational
gangs, insurgent movements, as well as street crime. Naturally,
preventing criminals and terrorists from obtaining weapons is an
objective for any government. This goal becomes even more complicated
when the weapons in question are obtained from the very institutions
that are tasked with combating criminal and violent organizations.

Tragically,
in recent years there have been a number of incidents in which weapons
were taken from military bases and police stations across Latin America;
this suggests a lack of adequate security measures in such facilities
at best, or collusion between corrupt defense personnel and criminal
enterprises at worst. When it comes to preventing violent non-state
actors in Latin America from obtaining weapons to commit crimes, step
one should be, unsurprisingly, that they do not come from military and
police depots.

Recent Cases from Regional Armed Forces

There
are a number of recent cases of the theft of weapons from military
depots across Latin America. For example, in early January 2016, two
rifles were robbed from the Uruguayan Army's battalion “Florida”.[i]
One soldier was accused of helping criminals sneak into the facilities
to steal the weapons. Unfortunately, these crimes have occurred before
in the small South American state: in 2011 the Uruguayan daily El
Observador reported that throughout the 2009-2011 period, as many as 19
weapons (15 FAL rifles, two submachine gun, and two Browning 9mm guns)
were stolen from the Uruguayan air force and navy. Uruguayan sailors
were found to have traded their weapons for recreational drugs.[ii]

Similar
thefts have also occurred in Peru: in early April 2017 as many as 130
grenades were stolen from the Peruvian Air Force’s Punta Lobos base.[iii]
A year earlier, 18 Galil rifles were reported missing from the arsenal
of the 115th ordnance battalion in Loreto region (in the Peruvian
Amazon).[iv]
The hypothesis was that the weapons were delivered to FARC insurgents
in Colombia or Brazilian criminals - the theft likely took place
sometime in late 2015 but the weapons were only reported missing in
January 2016.[v]

As
for Bolivia, a group of Brazilian criminals, in cahoots with a Bolivian
citizen, stole equipment from a Bolivian naval base in 2015.[vi] The weapons taken included 11 rifles, five guns as well as ammunition.

One
particularly troubling incident occurred in Colombia in 2015, as some
400 weapons (109 rifles, 87 pistols, among others, according to the
Colombian media) were stolen from the artillery battalion “San Mateo de
Pereira.”[vii] One sergeant and one soldier were reportedly charged for the theft.

Finally,
in August 2017 there was a violent incident in Venezuela when a group
of individuals (who apparently were anti-government, former military
personnel) attempted to steal weapons from the Venezuelan Army’s
Paramacay base, where the 41st armored brigade is headquartered.[viii]
A firefight that reportedly lasted three hours between the military and
the thieves, ensued, with several of the latter killed. It is unclear
if any weapons were stolen.

Recent Cases from Regional Police Forces

As
for weapons taken from police bases, there have been similar incidents,
particularly in Mexico. For example, in October 2016, unidentified
individuals entered a police station in Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico,
overpowering the police officers. According to the local media, the
criminals left with three handguns, one carbine and one shotgun.[ix] That same month, 20 long-range and 10 short-range weapons disappeared from a different police station in Morelos region.[x]

Meanwhile, in late October 2017, 28 guns disappeared from a police base in Iquique, Chile.[xi]
The media reports on the incident stressed that the weaponry was not
part of the local police’s own depot, but rather that they were
delivered there for safekeeping. The origin of the weapons aside, such a
crime is very problematic.

Other recent thefts have been reported across police stations in Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru.[xii]

Successful Recoveries

It
is worth noting that there have been several successes when it comes to
stopping these crimes and retrieving the lost weapons. Case in point,
Uruguayan authorities foiled an attempt to rob an army base in Chuy in
early July 2017 – according to Uruguay’s El Pais, one of the criminals was a former soldier.[xiii]

Additionally,
many lost weapons have been retrieved. For example, in 2015, several
individuals were detained in Brazil, and security forces retrieved the
11 AK-47 rifles that had been stolen from the aforementioned Bolivian
naval base.[xiv]
That same year the Chilean police (Policía de Investigaciones de Chile)
recovered one Ingram Mac-10 machine pistol and one FN/FAMAE Norinco
pistol, which had been stolen from a military base in Arica.[xv]
Also in 2015, the Colombian army reported that it had retrieved some 12
weapons out of the 400 that were stolen from a military base in
Pereira.[xvi]

An Issue that Hinders An In-depth Analysis

Before
we continue with our analysis, one disclaimer is necessary: The author
has not been able to find reliable governmental statistics that detail
how many weapons are missing from military and police depots. There have
been sporadic reports that have tried to keep track of the data. For
instance, a March 2015 article in the Argentine daily La Nacion explains
that a preliminary report by the Comisión Provincial por la Memoria
(provincial commission for remembrance) stated that, at that time, in
Buenos Aires region alone, some 900 weapons were believed to be missing
from local police stations, although that was a conservative estimate.[xvii]
Similarly, a 2015 report in Peru’s daily La Republica explains how, at
the time, 86 members of the country’s police and military were charged
with stealing weapons from their respective units and police bases.[xviii] Colombia’s renowned Semana has also reported on this problem.[xix]

Similarly,
research centers such as FLACSO and the Small Arms Survey have drafted
occasional case studies about weapons trafficking in different Latin
American states (Ecuador and Honduras, respectively).[xx]

Nevertheless
this problem requires constant monitoring not only by governmental
offices, but also by non-governmental organizations in order to ensure
transparency.[xxi]

Discussion

The
objective of this essay is not to imply that Latin American criminals
are exclusively obtaining weapons from military or police depots; in
reality that number is probably minuscule when compared to other sources
– many U.S. media reports consistently point out that most of the
weapons Mexican cartels utilize come from the United States.[xxii]
Nevertheless, this analysis has demonstrated that this is a recurring
issue in the region, with missing weaponry that includes pistols,
rifles, and grenades. It is a problem that should be addressed.

In
many cases, weapons were taken from military bases or police stations
because corrupt police or military personnel willfully cooperated with
criminal organizations, begging the question: what convinces a Latin
American police or military officer to provide criminals with weapons
that will be most likely utilized against security forces?

When
it comes to discussing the best practices to combat weapons trafficking,
some suggestions are self-evident. Case in point, having a database
with the model and serial numbers of missing weapons is necessary, so
that when a gun is retrieved from criminal organizations, the
authorities can track where said weapon came from. A problem with this
proposal is that, as aforementioned, many weapons are smuggled across
border lines so that crime syndicate “X” in country “Y” uses a weapon
that was taken from country “Z” – as was probably the case for the Galil
rifles stolen in Peru. This is a particular problem for Ecuador, which
serves as a corridor for weapons smuggled from Peru to Colombia (known
as “ant-type smuggling” or tráfico hormiga).[xxiii]
Ideally, cooperation initiatives between regional police and armed
forces should include greater sharing of information regarding the
weapons that are seized from criminals.

There are already
several agreements in place to promote record sharing between regional
governments, such as the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit
Manufacturing and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and
Other Related Material (CIFTA) [xxiv]
Additionally there are a number of bilateral agreements among
hemispheric governments to combat crimes related to weapons trafficking –
for example the governments of Ecuador and the United States signed an
agreement to improve cooperation to combat crimes such as drug and
weapons trafficking in late April 2018.[xxv]

Furthermore,
there is something particularly disappointing about finding out that
the individuals tasked with protecting a country and its citizens from
criminals and insurgents are precisely those providing the latter with
weapons to attack the former. Is there a “best practice” that can be
suggested for those specific crimes? Harsher prison sentences for those
found guilty is an obvious option. In fact, several military and police
personnel have been prosecuted (fairly or unfairly depends on how one
interprets the evidence) for some of the aforementioned incidents: as a
result of the missing Galil rifles, four army officers were given
six-month prison sentences.[xxvi] Similarly, in Chile, four ex police officers have been prosecuted for the missing guns in Iquique.[xxvii]

Another
suggestion would simply be, as naive as it may sound, stronger
indoctrination courses in military and police academies, so that new
recruits do not forget the pledge they are making to protect their
country and fellow citizens, and how helping criminals obtain weapons is
the polar opposite of said oath. A Latin American military officer
interviewed by the author argued in favor of this proposal, arguing that
“you can put five more guards, four more security cameras and three
more locks at weapons arsenals, but such incidents will continue to
occur… you have to train soldiers better, educate them better, pay them
better.”[xxviii]
On the other hand, another Latin American army officer explained to the
author, that such incidents should prompt armed forces to “take
security measures of the weapons depots to the extreme.”[xxix] There is certainly no one-stop-solution to address the issue of weaponry theft.

As
a final point, it is important to highlight that the theft of weaponry
from military bases is not a problem solely relegated to Latin America.
In the U.S. “more than $1 million in weapons parts and sensitive
military equipment was stolen out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and sold
in a vast black market,” according to an August 2017 report by the Associated Press.[xxx] Another theft occurred in the U.S. Army’s facilities in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2016.[xxxi] Without a doubt, “rotten apples” exist in defense and security forces across the world.

Final Thoughts

Weapons
trafficking is a major crime across the world, as it adds the
proverbial wood to the destructive fire that is crime and terrorism.
Latin America is no exception to this problem as it is not difficult to
find at least one incident within the last decade of wicked personnel
who have helped criminals obtain weapons from military or police
arsenals. To the credit of regional defense forces, several weapons have
been successfully retrieved, but the lack of open-source data that
shows how many weapons are missing from depots makes it difficult to
figure out what quantities we are talking about.

In any
organization, including those tasked with security and defense, it is
inevitable that there will be bad personnel that will seek to profit by
committing criminal acts, which apparently include providing weapons to
criminal entities. But while avoiding such incidents may be a utopia, it
is important for Latin American police and military forces to
constantly come up with new preemptive strategies not only to prevent
robberies from happening – like better salaries and stricter security
protocols– but, when they do occur, to be able to quickly track them,
particularly across borders. Weapons trafficking is a complex and very
profitable crime, and Latin American security and defense forces should
be combating it, not be involved in it.

[xxi]
This would also serve to understand better not only how many weapons
are lost or stolen, but how many are also found. The author has relied
on open-source news articles and reports for this analysis. Sources
consulted by the author explained that a person can request ministries
and specific government agencies for information regarding the incidents
discussed in this analysis, but it would take time for these petitions
to be processed.

[xxiv]
The Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing and
Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related
Material (CIFTA), 1997,
http://www.weaponslaw.org/instruments/1997-oas-convention-cifta.